Local restaurant serves hot dogs as specialty
If you want a Diggity Dog Salad, there’s only one place in town to get it. “We opened in March last year,’ Rhonda David said of her specialty eatery, Hot Diggity Dogs and Hoagies Too at 51 1/2 E. Fayette St., Uniontown.
Uniontown natives Rhonda and her husband Putty opened the shop using a 1950s theme and an American favorite – hot dogs – for its foundation. “We wanted to open something truly unique. We decided to look to the past for the d?cor. Putty came up with the name,’ Rhonda said.
A waitress at the former Beeson Caf? for several years, Rhonda has food service background. Finding the right business to open was Putty’s task. Once it was decided to specialize in hot dogs, “Putty got on the Internet and researched different hot dogs and styles.’
Hot Diggity Dog and Hoagies Too menu features a variety of specialty hot dogs, ranging from Chicago-style, with mustard, ketchup, onion, pickle, relish, tomato, salt and hot pepper, to the Jalapeno-style, a “quarter pounder stuffed with jalapenos and cheese,’ the menu says.
“We serve only all-beef dogs,’ Rhonda said.
“The whole idea was to be able to offer lunch for under $5. We think we are hitting that goal. We have been named for the second year in the Herald-Standard’s Reader’s Choice Awards,’ she said.
While the restaurant seats about 18 patrons, an outdoor patio used during the summer expands the number of customers who can visit the eatery.
“Much of our business, though, is takeout. We fax our daily specials every day to from 300 to 400 sites,’ she said, adding that Putty starts sending these via computer “when we go to bed at night. It takes two to three hours for all of them to go out.’ In addition, Hot Diggity Dog gains more exposure with a portable hot dog cart that can be used off site. “We also set it up on the corner here this summer and my niece ran it,’ Rhonda said.
The business buys its dogs from a West Virginia vendor. But other meats used on the hoagie side of the eatery are purchased locally.
“The hoagies are starting to sell more than the hot dogs,’ she said.
The hoagie menu includes favorites such as ham and cheese and meatball. But it also lists a Buffalo Chicken hoagie with chicken strips marinated in hot sauce.
“We also buy all our breads locally. They are all made fresh every day,’ she added.
The menu includes “a little bit of everything. We have salads, a soup of the day and chili,’ she said.
Open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Hot Diggity Dog and Hoagies Too is a family affair.
“I enjoy doing business here and it’s great for my family because we have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old who help out. They always come on Saturday because that’s the day they get their allowance. They look at it as their payday,’ she said. Her niece helps her during the week and the store has a delivery boy to handle call-in orders. Telephone for the restaurant is 724-439-4111.
The Davids are in a business that has roots back to the ninth century B.C., according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
Culinary historians, according to the council, also point to college magazines as the origination of the term hot dog.
“The term was current at Yale in the fall of 1894,when ‘dog wagons’ sold hot dogs at the dorms. The name was a sarcastic comment on the provenance of the meat. References to dachshund sausages and ultimately hot dogs can be traced to German immigrants in the 1800s, the council reported. “These immigrants brought not only sausages to America, but dachshund dogs. The name most likely began as a joke about the Germans’ small, long, thin dogs. In fact, even Germans called the frankfurter a ‘little-dog’ or ‘dachshund’ sausage, thus linking the word ‘dog’ to their popular concoction.’
Hot Diggity Dog is also just one venue for the item. According to council figures for 2001, 808 million pounds hot dogs were sold at retail stores alone. The market for hot dogs in the United States, measured in supermarket sales only, is $1.7 billion and has grown 2.9 percent in the past year, the council said.
“While a popular entr?e across the country, hot dog consumption does vary by region. Residents of the Southeast eat more processed meats in general. Almost half of the national hot dog consumption is in the South Central and Great Lakes Region. In the Northeast and in California, people prefer beef hot dogs. In the Midwest and West, residents prefer combination meat hot dogs. And some westerners prefer a lower fat hot dog.
“Residents of the Big Apple, New York City, spent the most money in retail stores on hot dogs last year – a whopping $95.6 million. Regionally, retail sales of hot dogs are estimated at $325.8 million in the Northeast,’ the council reported.